Human Rights Alert (NGO) is dedicated to discovering, archiving, and disseminating evidence of Human Rights violations by the justice systems of the State of California and the United States in Los Angeles, California, and beyond. Special emphasis is given to the unique role of computerized case management systems in the precipitous deterioration of integrity of the justice system.

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"...it's difficult to find a fraud of this size on the U.S. court system in U.S. history... where you have literally tens of thousands of fraudulent documents filed in tens of thousands of cases."Raymond Brescia, a visiting professor at Yale Law School

Thousands of Rampart-FIPs (Falsely Imprisoned Persons) remain locked up more than a decade after official, expert, and media report documented that they were falsely prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced in the largest court corruption sandal in the history of the United States...

10-10-01 Corruption of the California courts noticed by the United Nations

In summer 2010, the staff report of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, as part of the first ever, 2010 UPR (Universal Periodic Review) of Human Rights in the United States, noticed and referenced the Human Rights Alert April 2010 submission, pertaining to "corruption of the courts, the legal profession, and discrimination by law enforcement in California".

When Mitchell Crooks checked out of the county jail last month and checked into a Las Vegas hospital, the 36-year-old videographer knew he had a fight on his hands.

His face was bloodied and bruised. His $3,500 camera had been impounded by police, and he faced criminal charges for battery on a police officer.

One month later, things have changed for Crooks.

The ClarkCounty district attorney's office has dropped all charges, and Crooks has retained an attorney of his own. The Metropolitan Police Department has opened an internal investigation into the Las Vegas police officer, Derek Colling, who Crooks says falsely arrested and beat him for filming police.

And his camera -- which captured the entire March 20 altercation between Crooks and Colling -- has been returned.

CAUGHT ON TAPE

The words are friendly enough, but the tone is tense:

"Can I help you, sir?" Colling asks from his patrol car after parking it in front of Crooks' driveway and shining the spotlight on Crooks.

"Nope. Just observing," Crooks responds, fixing his camera on the officer.

Crooks had for an hour been recording the scene across the street from his home in the 1700 block of Commanche Circle, near East Desert Inn Road and South Maryland Parkway, where officers had several young burglary suspects handcuffed and sitting on the curb.

As Las Vegas crimes go, the activity was fairly boring. Crooks wanted to use his new camera, and he figured his neighbors would like to see the suspects' faces.

When Colling loaded suspects into the back of his car and drove in a circle through the cul-de-sac, Crooks said he thought police were leaving. Then the officer stopped his car.

"Do you live here?" Colling asks.

"Nope," Crooks says.

Colling steps out of his patrol car.

Crooks said he now regrets not telling the officer that he was in fact standing in his own driveway. He realizes his response seemed cheeky, but he said the officer made him nervous. Colling walks toward Crooks, left hand raised.

"Turn that off for me," Colling orders.

"Why do I have to turn it off?'' Crooks responds. "I'm perfectly within my legal rights to be able to do this."

The officer repeats the command several times; each time Crooks reiterates his right to film.

"You don't live here," Colling says, now close to Crooks.

"I do live here!"

"You don't live here, dude."

"I just said I live here!"

As Crooks backs away, Colling grabs him by the shoulder and throws him down. On the ground, Crooks grabs the camera and turns it toward his face.

Colling's leg then enters the video frame. Crooks says he believes that was the kick that broke his nose.

The camera records the sound of Crooks screaming. He said that's when Colling was punching his face.

"Shut up!" Colling yells. "Stop resisting!"

YOU'RE IN A WORLD OF HURT,' OFFICER SAYS

In his arrest report Colling wrote that Crooks grabbed his shoulders "and attempted to take me to the ground. I in turn took him to the ground."

At ClarkCountyDetentionCenter, Crooks was booked for battery on a police officer and obstruction of justice. He was released from jail the next day. On March 26, the Review-Journal reported on his case. Four days later all charges were dropped.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Laurent said he dismissed the charges because the police report was vague.

"I asked for a more definite description of the battery because battery requires a violent touching," Laurent said. Police never provided that information.

Crooks said he always believed he'd be vindicated, but after police returned his camera he knew he had proof.

"I was confident I was doing the right thing, but I was excited they (the DA's office) weren't wasting any time, and that somebody was smart enough to know I was acting within the law," he said.

Crooks said the incident looks worse on tape than he remembered.

What bothered him the most, he said, was Colling's attitude after he was placed in handcuffs.

"Why did you do that? I live here," Crooks is heard pleading on the tape.

"You just told me you didn't live here," Colling says. "You live right here, in this house?"

Crooks asks for paramedics. Colling tells him to shut up and follow orders.

"If you fight again, dude Hey, if you (expletive) fight again, dude, you're in a world of hurt. You hear me?

"You're not in charge here, buddy. You hear me?"

Colling mocks Crooks' labored breathing.

"Oh yeah, buddy. Hey, when you don't do what I ask you to do, then you're in a world of hurt. Then you're in a world of hurt. Aren't ya? Huh?"

Crooks was later diagnosed with a deviated septum and a chest wall injury. Crooks believes his ribs were broken, but never got X-rays that could prove it.

ACLU LAWYERS SAY OFFICER WAS WRONG

Allen Lichtenstein, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, reviewed Crooks' video and said Colling was clearly in the wrong. Officers are trained to avoid escalating situations, but Colling initiated the incident and created a physical confrontation without provocation, he said.

"It raises serious questions about whether the officer used good judgment and whether he was properly trained," Lichtenstein said. "Those questions require answers."

Police have no expectation of privacy, and it's perfectly legal to film officers as long as it does not interfere in their investigation, he said. Colling erred in claiming that Crooks was trespassing. By law, only a property owner or resident can make a trespassing complaint, Lichtenstein said.

"Even if the officer didn't think he lived there, that doesn't mean he didn't have permission to be there,'' Lichtenstein said. "In the video I heard, that question was never asked."

Crooks' attorney, David Otto, on Thursday sent police a statement from Crooks, along with a demand for $500,000 to cover Crooks' medial care, pain and suffering.

Colling had no legitimate reason to approach Crooks that night, Otto wrote.

"Officer Colling was aggravated that a citizen should have the audacity to video tape, him -- a Las Vegas Metropolitan Patrol Officer,'' Otto wrote. "Officer Colling decided to use the fear and terror of his physical ability to beat Mr. Crooks into submission -- to teach Mr. Crooks and, by example, all citizens and residents of the Las VegasValley."

The suspects in Colling's patrol car may have witnessed the event and given statements to detectives, but their names have not been released. Police said they were not arrested or booked, so their names are not public record.

Crooks said he doesn't want to talk to detectives.

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

Neither Colling nor Crooks are strangers to controversy.

Colling has been involved in two fatal shootings in his 5½ years as a Las Vegas police officer. In 2006, he and four other officers shot Shawn Jacob Collins after the 43-year-old man pulled a gun at an east valley gas station.

In 2009, he confronted a mentally ill 15-year-old Tanner Chamberlain, who was holding a knife in front of his mother and waving it in the direction of officers. Colling shot him in the head.

Both shootings were ruled justified by ClarkCounty coroner's juries.

Crooks made headlines in 2002 when he videotaped two Inglewood, Calif., police officers beating a 16-year-old boy. One officer was fired and criminally charged but was not convicted after two trials ended with hung juries. The incident strained race relations in Southern California -- the police officer was white, the teenager black.

Crooks first tried to sell that tape and then declined to give it to prosecutors. He was then jailed on old warrants from unrelated drunken driving and petty theft charges. Civil rights advocates decried it as retribution.

In 2003 he moved to Las Vegas, where he makes a living, among other things, shooting video for nightclubs, and says he kept out of trouble right up until the night he met officer Colling.

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Richard Fine - 70 year old, former US prosecutor, had shown that judges in Los Angeles County had taken "not permitted" payments (called by media "bribes"). On February 20, 2009, the Governor of California signed "retroactive immunities" (pardons) for all judges in Los Angeles. Less than two weeks later, on March 4, 2009 Richard Fine was arrested in open court, with no warrant. He is held ever since in solitary confinement in Los Angeles, California. No judgment, conviction, or sentencing was ever entered in his case.

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Nov 2010 - Review of Human Rights in the US by the United Nations

In its April 2010 report submitted to the United Nations as part of the November 2010 - first ever - review of Human Rights in the United States, Human Rights Alert called for public validation of computerized information system of the US justice system.

About Me - Joseph Zernik, PhD

CONTACT: jz12345@earthlink.net

Dr Joseph Zernik gained substantial experience in records examination, particularly in examination of computerized court records. Dr Zernik published a report pertaining to PACER and CM/ECF, which was published in a peer-review computer science journal (see below), and reviewed hundreds of PACER dockets and related court records from US district courts and US courts of appeals across the United States.

Specific reports or opinions:

· April 2010 – Dr Zernik filed a report on Human Rights in Los Angeles County, California, as part of the first ever 2010 UPR (Universal Periodic Review) of Human Rights in the United States. The report was incorporated into the staff report of the Human rights Council of the United Nations with a reference to "corruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California". [i]

· August 2010 – Dr Zernik published a report in a peer-reviewed computer science journal, with editorial board including scholars from six European nations and Canada, opining fraud in the case management systems and online public access systems of the Los Angeles County jails (Inmate Information Center) - enabling large-scale false imprisonments under the pretense of lawfulness. [ii]

· August 2010 – Dr Zernik published a report in a peer-reviewed computer science journal, with editorial board including scholars from six European nations and Canada, opining fraud in the design of the case management and online public access systems of the United States courts (PACER and CM/ECF) - enabling the conduct of pretense litigations. [iii]

· April 2009 – Dr Zernik authored reports regarding Sustain, the case management system of the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles. Upon review of the reports, a leading computer science scholar, Prof Eliyahu Shamir, provided a qualified opinion, supporting Dr Zernik’s claims of fraud in the design and operation of the system, and calling on US computer science scholars to examine the integrity of the system. [iv]

· January 2009 – Dr Zernik’s opinion of fraud in specific litigation records of the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, was reaffirmed by the opinion of Fraud Expert James Wedick, an FBI veteran, who had been decorated by the US Congress, US Attorney General, and FBI Director for his accomplishments in crime prevention. [v]

· ~August 2008 - Dr Zernik’s opinion of fraud in the underwriting and loan records of Countrywide Financial Corporation and related persons, was supported by the opinion of Fraud Expert Robert Meister, a Fraud Expert, who appears in courts across the United States. [vi,vii ,viii]

· ~August 2004 – Dr Zernik’s opinion of fraud in the online public access of the California Commission on Teachers Credentialing relative to teachers’ credentials in the Beverly Hills School District was confirmed after two lengthy investigations by the California Department of Education, which determined “The School District is out of compliance and in violation of the law”.

LINKS:

i 10-04-19 Human Rights Alert (NG0) submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council for the

2010 Review (UPR) of Human Rights in the United States as incorporated into the UPR staff report: